It's Time To Throw That Tupperware Away
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Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Monetizing Your Media Assets Beyond Advertising
By: Jaffer Ali
There's gold in those hills somewhere. How do I mine it?
--CEO Charles Townsend, Conde Nast (July, 2010)
It is no secret that publishers of every ilk have been
under attack, though some might suggest it's less of an
attack and more of a self-immolation. Be that as it may,
online or offline, the same old, same old just seems to
prevail with an overwhelming majority.
Yes, there is the delusional foray into the pay wall
envisioned by the Murdoch/Brill contingency. But the vast
majority of publishers out there remain one-trick ponies.
What is that pony's name? Advertising.
How many revenue streams does Huffington Post have?
How many revenue streams does The Chicago Tribune have?
How many revenue streams does The Drudge Report have?
The folks who most easily could have competed with the
likes of Groupon and Living Social were those local
newspapers that already had boots on the ground treading
the local-business landscape. Substantial revenue streams
could have been created by the simple cross-pollination
of existing relationships with vendors and readers.
But they sat on their hands, allowing "business as usual"
to prevail and failing to explore, let alone leverage,
the potential of their asset-rich market equity. Only
now, pressed against the wall as they are, do we see the
beginnings of change. It may be only a faint glimmer, but
a forest fire begins with a single spark.
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Among those articulating the wisdom and reasoning behind a
push to monetize legacy media assets is Charles Townsend,
CEO of the media conglomerate, Conde Nast:
"I'm charging [the new executive team] with leading the
company in the creation of a new [business] model, which
is technology enabled, consumer-centric and [concerned
with] the monetization of that [consumer] relationship."
Case in point: The NY Times has created a wine club to
monetize the cultivated audience that wants and reads
what they have to offer.
Media owners must become more self-reliant. This means
moving beyond just selling advertising. If publishers
understood that relationships with their audiences SHOULD
be more expansive and inclusive, a whole new world of
possibilities would open to them.
This can be extremely empowering once a publisher begins
to understand the potential embodied in those relation-
ships. A lot of NY Times' readers apparently like wine,
hence a wine club that not only satisfies the audience,
but which spawns any number of synergistic business
opportunities.
We are in an age of joint marketing alliances. If media
owners are not exploring deeper ways in which to monetize
the "consumer relationship" as Charles Townsend suggests,
they are leaving a lot of money on the table.
I am not saying that every media owner has to rush out
and do a slew of CPA (Cost Per Action) deals. But they
should be building databases of hand raisers for different
verticals. In so doing they will find business partners
that share and inspire the sensibilities of their audience;
be it wine, clothes, daily deals for products, or travel.
This involves viewing one's audience in a multi-dimensional
manner. These people don't just consume media. They
purchase wine, cars, go out to dinner, buy insurance and
more. There are a multitude of categories that fit every
type of audience profile. The trick is to match your
audience with the right partner, a process that begins the
moment you realize that business as usual is not the answer
and allow yourself to wonder what could be.
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Jaffer is the CEO of Vidsense, an online video snack
network. He also heads PulseTV.com, an e-commerce company
that creates daily deal partnerships with other media
owners. He can be reached at j (dot) ali (at) Vidsense.com
or give him a call at 708-478-4500.
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Questions? Comments? Email me at: quote (at) Quotes2u.com
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